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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Pinterest, Ancestry and Copyrighted Images

Can you post this Census image on your Pinterest Board?
What about Facebook? Your blog? or Twitter?
Check out the little "share" button on the green bar first.

After my
last “Pinterest for Genealogists” blog post, I have had second thoughts about
using Pinterest for genealogy. I was
concerned about creating a Pinterest “bulletin board” for an ancestor, and then
pinning a census image from Ancestry to that board. Although clicking on that image links back to
Ancestry, and although I had cited the image source as Ancestry.com I wasn’t
sure if I was violating some sort of term of agreement with Ancestry. I had seen bloggers post an image to a blog,
but was this the same at Pinterest?

Then last month Pinterest introduced new code for websites and blogs that want to block
the pinning of content from their sites. Obviously some websites must have
complained. Is it fair to pin without
asking permission or opinions of the originators of that image? I haven’t seen
everyone credit their source of an image when they pin to a board. Are people assuming that a click driving
traffic back to the original source is enough?

I decided to
drop a line to Ancestry’s customer service form online. Three days later they wrote back and referred
me to an email address in their media relations department. So, I guess customer service had no clear
answer either, just like me.

Another
three days later I received a replay from Matthew Deighton at Ancestry stating
“I have forwarded your email to our legal department for review. I want to make sure my answer is fully backed
up by our legal team. I should have an
answer to you soon.” I guess customer
service was not the only person without a clear answer! Matthew didn’t sound very sure either.

Finally! Three weeks after our last email, I heard
from Matthew Deighton again. Here is his
message:

“I have been working with our legal team
concerning this issue. The issue is not rooted in Ancestry.com, but more so the
archives where the records were collected. Some agreements allow the use of
their images on Facebook and the like. Other agreements forbid the use of their
records on other outlets. The issue becomes complicated quickly, but if you see
the “Share to Facebook” link on the left side of a document, you should be
approved to share that image on other social sites as well.

I apologize for taking so long to get back to
you. Working through legal takes a while.”

I took a quick look at my Pinterest boards. I had pinned up US Census records, a copy of
a city directory and a naturalization record on a board for my great great
grandfather, Professor Caleb Rand Bill.
On this board I also had some scanned photos from my own family
albums. When I went back to Ancestry to
see the Census images I saw the SHARE button at the top with the little
Facebook, Twitter and email buttons.
Good, it is safe to share the Census images on social sites, and
according to Matthew Deighton, this would include Pinterest.

A quick look at Caleb Bill’s naturalization
record on Ancestry had the same SHARE button, as well as the image from the
1895 Beverly, Massachusetts City Directory.
I hadn’t violated any copyright issues.
And I now know what to do in the future when sharing anything from
Ancestry.com, and now you know, too!

11 comments:

Great post, Heather. I often wondered about this. I like to use images to break up the text in my blogs, but I only use my own images, or items that I know are not copyright. I have posted Scottish documents online, with permission, which takes a while to come through. Not as long as it took you to hear back from Ancestry, though :-) Jo

Very useful! Thanks for taking the trouble to find out about this and to share what you learned. I have used some Ancestry images on my blog, but I have tried just to select the relevant portion and not to put up tons of images. It is nice to know how to tell what can be share and what not.

Thanks for this official answer. I asked about something on this at RootsTech, but did not receive an answer I like the simplicity of the rule. If they offer sharing it's ok! Actually, I think I will use this for most pages. Copyrights have gotten sooooo complicated.

Heather, there is so much about Pinterest that we all need to delve into. I am wondering--for those whose pictures are deemed "shareable"--whether incorporating a watermark with one's website or blog address on the edge of the picture would help. That way, wherever the picture goes, your credit automatically will follow. Although, oh, what a great amount of work it would be to go back through all those files already online to add those insignia.

I just started using Pinterest.com, and while I know to ask permission to copy pictures on Ancestry.com, I hadn't considered the issue in regards to Pinterest.com. Your post heightened my awareness to make sure I am pinning images to my boards legally. Thank you for taking the time to research this subject and to share what you learned with us.

This is great news. I removed from my blog a transcription of a newspaper article I found at Ancestry, once I learned it was a syndicated article, and the original newspaper wanted money for the use of the text. The newspaper article has a share button, so while I'm not going to return the transcription to the post, I feel comfortable with including the image of the syndicated version.

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Author of the Nutfield Genealogy blog and occasional genealogy speaker. My family research includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, with a smattering of Nova Scotia. Please contact me if you see your ancestors on this blog. I would love to share information. I am the former secretary of the New Hampshire Mayflower Society, former President of the Londonderry Historical Society, member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Mass. Society of Genealogists, The National Genealogical Society, and the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.